


i just want to see your face again

by rinthegreat



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar the Last Airbender, Day 2: The Water is Alive, M/M, Rinharu Week 2017, makoto's worried and also the best friend ever, rin just really misses haru, this is atla canon compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-26 00:25:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10775628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rinthegreat/pseuds/rinthegreat
Summary: “What do you mean he’s gone?”  Rin asks, not for the first time.Makoto’s in a panic, his eyes wild, darting around the room as if Haru will appear out of thin air.  He pulls at his hair, an action he’s obviously repeated enough that the strands stick out at odd ends.  Along with the two day stubble and the bags under his eyes, the guy looks absolutely insane.  “I don’t know,” he repeats.----Haru goes missing and Rin is determined to find him again.





	i just want to see your face again

**Author's Note:**

> Another collab with [brickerbeetle](http://brickerbeetle.tumblr.com/) whose art tablet is still broken. I will post a link to her art once it's done!
> 
> Another shoutout to my beautiful beta [thislittlekumquat](http://thislittlekumquat.tumblr.com/) who helped a lot with this. Thank you! <3
> 
> There are a lot of little easter eggs in here for both Avatar and Free, so keep your eyes open for that. :)

“The water is alive” is first thing Haru had said to him when they’d met eight years ago. It was Rin’s first trip to the North Pole. He’d immediately fallen in love with the buildings made from snow and ice, the canals functioning like Fire Nation streets, and the strange boy with eyes bluer than the sea itself.

It had taken nearly six years of intermittent courting – separated by months of time that Rin had been back at his home in the fire nation – but finally the waterbender had agreed to a first date. And then a second. And even a third.

Enough dates that Rin’s lost track by now. Instead he counts time by the number of etches he’s made in the pendant he’s been working on; a painstaking process when he can’t carve it out of ice like a waterbender. Two years passed, but now the pendant is finally finished, the perfect ribbon acquired, his speech planned.

He has plans, a surprise picnic on a boat – Haru’s favorite date spot – maybe even a short ride around the Pole. Instead he arrives to find Makoto in a panic, Haru’s bed cold and empty, and no sign of the bender.

 “The water is alive” is the last thing Haru had said to him when he’d left three months ago.

The words have always rubbed him the wrong way, and not just because of the frequency with which Haru repeats them. No, what bothers him is the faraway look Haru adopts when he says them. How he stares into the ocean like Rin isn’t there, like _he_ isn’t there either.

 “What do you mean he’s gone?” Rin asks, not for the first time.

Makoto’s in a panic, his eyes wild, darting around the room as if Haru will appear out of thin air. He pulls at his hair, an action he’s obviously repeated enough that the strands stick out at odd ends. Along with the two day stubble and the bags under his eyes, the guy looks absolutely insane. “I don’t know,” he repeats. They’ve been going around the same conversation for twenty minutes without getting anywhere.

Rin sympathizes with the urge to pull out his own hair. “And you’ve checked everywhere?”

 “Yes!” The brunette throws his hands up, clearly exasperated. “Rin, I’ve been looking for him for three days. I _promise_ I’ve looked everywhere at least five times.”

And the thing is, Rin believes him. Makoto cares about Haru more than he cares about himself sometimes. He wouldn’t let him go missing without conducting a full search. That’s what worries Rin so much: Makoto hasn’t heard from him. Haru’s been known to get overwhelmed, shut out the world when it all gets to be too much. But even then, he always lets his best friend in. Always lets Makoto know he’s safe and alive.

Rin clenches his fist around the pendant so hard he’s afraid he’ll break it. It won’t matter if he can’t find Haru. “I’m going to look for him.”

 “Rin, I’ve already looked –!“

 “I know!” He takes a deep breath, reminding himself that this isn’t Makoto’s fault. That he shouldn’t get unnecessarily mad at the only other person who could be missing Haru as much as he is right now. “I know,” he repeats, softer. “It’s not that I don’t trust you. I do. It’s just…”

It’s just that he can’t stand around here and do nothing.

Makoto nods in complete understanding and steps back, letting Rin step out of the hut. He’s not twelve anymore; no longer young and out of control. So he manages to keep his cool as he wanders down the snowy sidewalks of the city. He knows Makoto’s checked everywhere, but he has to do something or he’s going to break down.

He heads down street after street, systematically ruling out hiding spots one by one as the light fades. Night has fallen by the time he reaches the palace courtyard and he’s searched every place in town. Every nook and cranny. Until he’s asked everyone who’s ever talked to them when they’ve gone out on their evening walks.

No one’s seen him. Everyone’s worried. People don’t just _go missing_ in the North Pole.

Rin’s exhausted. This morning he was on a ship, ready to hit land after a few weeks at sea. Excited at the surprise he had prepared for Haru.

Now he’s sitting against the snowy wall, fighting back tears of frustration – and anger and _longing_ – because he can’t find Haru. He can’t. And he’s looked everywhere.

_Not everywhere_.

The thought appears in his head, not formed in a voice, not created by his own brain. It just appears, and once it’s there it takes up space. Nagging him. Because he’s searched everywhere, he has.

Except.

His eyes go to the door in the wall. Small, nondescript. Haru had taken him through it once before, into the spirit oasis. The most spiritual place for the water tribe.

Haru wouldn’t be there. _Shouldn’t_ be there. But that doesn’t stop Rin from standing up, walking over, and pushing open the door.

The oasis is as strange as he remembers, warm where the rest of the continent is cold. The area surrounding the pool at the center is lush and green, pleasant enough that Rin has to take off his jacket to be comfortable. _The water is alive_ , Haru had always told him. Here, he can almost believe it. It’s strange and beautiful and filled with enough spiritual energy that even he – a firebender with as much spiritual attunement as a rock – can feel it.

But no Haru.

Rin sinks down in the grass next to the pool. He’d gotten his hopes up, thought Haru might actually be here. He clasps his hands behind his head, dropping his face between his knees. Breathe, he reminds himself. People don’t just _disappear_.

Except sometimes they apparently do.

He’s heard stories of places, villages in the Earth Kingdom who pollute too much until people start disappearing, taken into the spirit world. But those are just stories, the Northern Water Tribe respects their environment – and the spirits – and the Avatar would’ve noticed if there were strange spiritual activity up here.

He’s quietly panicking as he sits at the edge of the pool, going through a mental list of all the places Haru could be:

  1. Lost in the Fire Nation
  2. Captured by pirates
  3. Murdered by the pirates who captured him…



 “Oh. You’re a human.”

Rin nearly leaps out of his skin at the voice. He was usually alert, but somehow someone had managed to sneak up on him. He gets up in a hurry, turning around to see a person standing under the gate.

But no…he isn’t a person at all. He’s a sort of blue color, and he’s glowing.

Rin jerks backwards so hard, his foot drops. He glances down, not remembering being on a hill and finds himself knee deep in the pool. But his foot isn’t wet.

And now he’s glowing too.

 “What the fuck?” He jumps out of the pool in a panic, only to see himself flopped over on the ground. “What the _fuck_?!” He reaches down to push his body over, but his hand passes through. Fucking…what the **_fuck_**. “Am I dead?”

The glowing man in front of him frowns, head tilting in a way that’s too human. Rin wants to pinch himself awake. “Dead? Oh! You must think…” He trails off into a fit of giggles, as if this whole experience is _funny_.

“This isn’t funny.”

The glowing man waves his hand in dismissal. “It kinda is though.”

 “No,” Rin growls stepping forward, “it definitely _isn’t_.” He means to conjure a flame, a fireball, something he can thoroughly burn this trickster with but…  “What the fuck?” He repeats a third time. “Why can’t I bend?”

The glowing man jumps up, neatly perching himself on top of the gate. “You can’t bend in spirit form, silly human.” He cocks his head again. “You know, when I felt your pull I assumed you were the Avatar, but you aren’t, are you?”

 “No…he’s a waterbender.”

 “Ah,” the man nods, looking Rin up and down. “And you are a…firebender?”

 “Obviously.”

“Just because you deck yourself out in red doesn’t make it obvious. You humans and your labels…”

Rin growls, pulling at his hair. “Will you just tell me what the _fuck_ is going on? Who even are you?”

Apparently pleased that Rin is no longer trying to attack him, the glowing man jumps down, landing smoothly in the grass without a single blade moving. This whole thing just isn’t normal. “I’m Nagisa,” he thrusts out his hand, “pleased to meet you.”

Well that…explains nothing.

“Why are we glowing?” He asks, ignoring the offered handshake.

Nagisa huffs, pushing his hand in front of Rin until he’s forced to shake it. Once Rin finally gives in, he smiles. “There ya go. I’m a spirit. _Obviously_.” His grin turns mocking, but Rin manages to keep his temper in check. Barely. “You, though, are human. Therefore you’re glowing because your spirit reached outside your fragile human body. Or something. I’m actually not really sure how it works for humans. I thought you were the Avatar.”

“The Avatar is human too.”

Nagisa waves his hand again, like it doesn’t matter. “Whatever. Human things aren’t really my forte. Actually, that’s why you’re here.” Rin’s scowl must convey that he has no idea what Nagisa’s talking about, because the spirit continues. “It’s a long story, but the short one is: my husband has a human he’s sort of adopted but…we need to get rid of it. Rei won’t listen to me because he thinks he’s an expert in human affairs but the thing’s kinda dying, so I went for help and then your spirit reached out to me and here we are.” Nagisa beams at him, but Rin’s mouth just drops open.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Nope!”

Rin’s going to pull his hair out if this gets any worse. There are so many things wrong with what the spirit just said, but he feels a pull and adds a bullet to his list of where Haru could be right now:

  1. Trapped in the Spirit World



“Does this human have a name?”

Nagisa shrugs. “Something short and girly, I think. I’ve been trying to avoid being around it.”

Rin’s temper flares. “First of all, we aren’t ‘its’ or ‘things’! Goddamn, this is why humans don’t mess with spirits!”

“Hey!”

“And second of all, does he look like this?” Rin takes out the painting of Haru he keeps in his pocket at all times – strange to see it in a glowing blue form, but it looks good on Haru – and shows it to the spirit.

The spirit squints at it before beaming again. “Yeah! That’s it!” Rin growls again and the spirit hastily fixes his error. “Him. Whatever.”

Good enough. Besides, there are more important things. Such as: “That’s Haru.” He’s remarkably calm, especially considering how worked up he’d just been. Haru is trapped in the spirit world. How perfect. Somehow, he’s not surprised.

“Haru. That sounds right.”

“And you can take me to him?”

Nagisa nods. “That’s why I’m here anyway.”

Relief floods through him. He knows where Haru is. He’s going to get him back. But then: “wait, did you say he’s dying?”

“Probably. I don’t know how humans work, but I think he’s dying. I don’t think your kind is really supposed to be in our world that long.”

The panic comes back in full force. “Take me to him. Now.” He doesn’t care that his body is still lying prone on the ground here or that his bending isn’t working in his spirit form. All he cares about is getting Haru back.

“Geez, calm down.” Nagisa beckons to him. “Come here, I think I need to touch you for this to work.”

Rin doesn’t hesitate, not even for a moment. He walks directly up to Nagisa and lets the spirit grab hold of his wrist. He has a moment to appreciate the strangeness that they can touch each other, but he can’t feel his own body before the world tightens around him. He looks around, lines blurred where there should be landscape. Rin blinks a few times and eventually the lines straighten out into landscape again.

The area around him is completely unfamiliar. It also looks nothing like the world he knows. The colors are all…different. It’s more like something out of a painting than a real place. Curious, Rin reaches out and touches a nearby tree. His hand doesn’t go through; he’s really in the spirit world. It also brings something else to his attention.

“I’m not glowing anymore…”

Nagisa laughs. “Of course not! We’re in the Spirit World now.”

Of course. That explains everything. If Rin thinks too hard about this, he’s going to have a headache, so instead he focuses back on the most important thing. “Take me to Haru.”

“Are all humans this demanding? I don’t know how Rei deals with it,” he grumbles but beckons to Rin anyway. “Come on.”

The spirit world, Rin notes as they walk, is strange. He watches a bird land on a flower only to be devoured by it before the entire thing turns into what looks like a dragon – with a bird head and petal wings, if that even counted as a dragon – and fly off into the horizon.

“Why couldn’t we appear right at your home?” He asks. Every few steps the scenery zooms by at a rate faster than they can walk, making him wonder why they even walk at all.

Nagisa huffs. “Because it’s rude to appear in the middle of a residential area. Don’t you know that? You wouldn’t just fire-blast your way into someone’s home, would you?”

“No but that’s different.”

“How?”

Rin…doesn’t know. He opens his mouth and ends up snapping it shut rather than answer. “Are we at least close?”

“Demanding _and_ impatient. You’re not leaving a good impression for humans you know.”

Breathe, Rin told himself. Deep breaths. In and out. Find Haru, nothing else is important. “You said you thought he was dying?” Rin asks instead, trying his best to ignore how the words twist apart his insides.

“Hmm…well I don’t really know. He seemed a lot more animated when Rei first brought him back, but now he just sits there and doesn’t do much of anything.”

That…is worrying. Very worrying. Rin chokes back a nasty comment. They need to get to Haru _faster_. As fast as they can. “And what makes you think I can help?”

“You probably can’t.”

“What? But you just –“

“All I need you to do,” Nagisa cuts over him, “is convince Rei that keeping a human here for research is stupid. He won’t listen to me.”

“Aren’t you married?”

“Of course! But there was an incident with a lion turtle and now he doesn’t listen to my advice…”

Rin almost swallows his tongue. “A lion turtle?”

“It’s a long story,” Nagisa brushes off. “Ah, we’re here!”

‘Here’ is nothing more than a large tree at the edge of a pond. But nothing in the spirit world is ever quite what it seems. The spirit steps to the trunk and presses his hand to the bark. The tree expands, the lines of the world shifting, until Rin could clearly see a door appear. “We like our privacy,” Nagisa says in response to his unasked question before pushing the door open.

Rin isn’t sure what to expect when he walks in, but after the strangeness that has been his day, he isn’t too surprised to find the treehouse larger on the inside than the outside. He _is_ , however, surprised by how much bigger it is. The house is basically a mansion, more spacious than his father’s place.

They enter an entry hall, where Nagisa coughs at him to take his shoes off. Rin bites back his retort that his shoes aren’t even _real_ since his body’s back in the North Pole and takes them off.

“Rei! I’m home early!” Nagisa calls as soon as he’s done worrying over imaginary spirit dirt ruining his perfect home.

Rin hears rushing footsteps before a second spirit appears at the landing of the grand staircase in front of them. “Nagisa, I told you not to shout when I’m in the middle of –“ the second spirit – Rei, he assumes – cuts himself off mid-sentence. “Nagisa. Who is that?” He asks the question as if he knows perfectly well what the answer will be and is expecting a fight to come from it.

“Your human’s up the stairs and to the right,” Nagisa tells Rin in a low voice, unaffected. Rin hesitates long enough that the spirit ends up pushing him towards the staircase.

He doesn’t need a second invitation.

Rin races up the stairs, surprised when Rei passes him without comment, instead confronting his husband still in the entryway. He ignores them and turns right at the landing, following those stairs to the top too. A feeling, a sense of where Haru is, guides him once he reaches the top. He doesn’t turn at all, doesn’t open any doors. Rin knows somehow that Haru is in the room at the end of the hallway.

He bursts into the room, breathing harder than necessary. He expects to see Haru lying on the ground, maybe unconscious, possibly even bleeding out. Worst case scenarios rush through his head faster than he can list them. But that’s not what he sees.

Haru’s sitting on the sill of an open window, gazing out at the scenery. He looks exactly the same as he had when Rin had last seen him. He breathes out a sigh of relief, letting the door close behind him as he steps into the room. “Haru.”

At the sound of his name, the waterbender turns around, and Rin’s breath catches in his throat.

_Oh_ , is all he can think, _this is what the spirit meant_. Because Haru may not be physically different, but the light in his eyes, the blue that Rin loves so much, is just _gone_.

“Who…” Recognition dawns, but Haru’s eyes are still wrong somehow. “Rin,” he breathes.

Rin doesn’t hesitate any longer. He races over and engulfs Haru in a spine crushing hug. It hasn’t been a day – or maybe it has, he’s lost track of time – since he started looking, but the relief is staggering. “Haru,” and oh gods is he choking on tears?

“Has it been six months already?” A slight tremble breaks up Haru’s words, and Rin squeezes him tighter.

“No…no I came back early. I’m here to get you back.”

Haru finally peels himself out of Rin’s grasp, looking him in the eye, clearly confused. “How did you find me?”

With a start, Rin realizes why Haru doesn’t look right: his eyes have lost all their blue. His fingers, still resting on Haru’s shoulders, tremble with the effort it takes for him to not throw the other bender over his shoulder and run out. “I’ll always find you, Haru.”

Haru frowns. “That’s not –“

“So, Rei isn’t really _pleased_ that I brought a second human here…oh. Did I interrupt something?” Haru’s complaint is cut off by Nagisa’s voice.

Rin turns to glare at the spirit leaning against the doorframe. “I don’t give a _shit_ what ‘Rei’ thinks.” He uses quotes around the other spirit’s name to emphasize how little he cares. He can’t get it out of his head how _blank_ Haru’s face was when he’d first walked in, how different he looks without the sparkling blue in his eyes. “If it weren’t for him his expressions wouldn’t –“

His words are cut off by a sudden whoosh, his vision going blurry.

“– Be so empty…What the fuck?” Rin looks around himself, the landscape normalizing itself around him again. He’s standing on the edge of an unfamiliar swamp. “What the fuck?” He repeats, rubbing his eyes as if that would make him magically reappear in Nagisa and Rei’s strange spirit household. Or better yet, back in the North Pole with Haru.

A whisking noise sounds behind him and he spins around. He doesn’t see what made the sound, nor does he see Haru or the spirits. Instead he sees an ancient tree with a crack in the bottom large enough for a person to pass through.

The spirit world sucks, he decides. One minute he was in that spirit house wishing there were _something_ he could do to bring Haru’s expression back, and now he’s…gods know where.

“Hello?” He calls, because _fuck it_.

The whisking from before sounds again, louder this time. Once again Rin flips around and once again nothing is there.

“Hello?” He asks again, this time more tentative. And for some unknown reason, he decides to walk into the tree. It’s dark, crude stairs leading down. Like a moth drawn to a flame, Rin walks down the stairs.

 

 

“That’s not good,” the blonde spirit in the doorway remarks.

Haru stares at the empty space between them. Someone had been standing there, but he can’t…he can’t remember who. Whoever it was is important to him…he thinks.

Haru pulls one of his bangs in front of his eyes. The tips have faded, closer to grey than the blue the rest of the strands are. That’s probably not good.

“Rei!” The blonde spirit shouts, walking forward. Automatically, Haru backs up. He doesn’t know this spirit. He just wants…

He doesn’t know what he wants.

The blonde spirit grabs his arm above the elbow. “Rei!”

A second spirit appears, wearing glasses and an irritated expression. He looks somewhat familiar. “Nagisa, I told you…where’s the second human?”

“He disappeared.”

“He must’ve had a wish to be somewhere else,” Rei informs him nonchalantly, not seeming worried. Haru can practically feel the blonde one, Nagisa, panicking in contrast. “What was the last thing he said?”

“That if it weren’t for you, his expression wouldn’t…and then he trailed off.”

Rei’s own expression goes from annoyed to worried in a second. “Just because he wished for a changed expression doesn’t mean he went _there_. He could’ve very well disappeared to the Mother of Faces –“

“He doesn’t want this human’s _identity_ changed. He wants him to go back to how he was before.”

“Oh. That’s not good. That is _very_ not good.”

Haru sighs. He doesn’t know who they’re talking about, but at this point he doesn’t care. He just wants Nagisa to let go of his arm so he can sit in the window.

“He’s doing that thing again,” Nagisa says, glancing at him worriedly.

Rei glares. “I told you I was _working_ on it.”

“Humans are fragile, Rei.”

He tries to tug his arm out of the spirit’s grip, but the blonde is too strong. “Let me go,” he says, no heat behind his words. He really doesn’t care anymore. He can see the outside well enough from here if he turns his head to the side.

A sigh comes from one of the spirits. Probably Rei given the conversation. “Fine. I’m taking him with me though. Don’t do anything else to ‘help’. We don’t need a hoard of humans in here.”

“I resent –“

The rest of the complaint is cut off as the blonde releases his arm. Rei grabs it instead and the world disappears around him, realigning itself in a new location. This one is less appealing than looking out that window. Oh well. He sighs, wondering what’s next for him out here.

“He should be around here somewhere,” Rei mutters, pulling him along. “Come on, and keep your face expressionless. Koh likes to sneak up on whoever wanders in here.”

He neither knows nor cares who Koh is, though the name pulls at his memory. There’s something important related to it. The feeling only nags him for a second before disappearing along with his curiosity about the swamp. As far as he’s concerned they’ve been here forever and it doesn’t matter anyway.

“Human! Come on out. Stop playing hide and seek, ok?” Rei calls, voice high pitched.

“If you’re trying to hide from someone, should you be yelling?” He asks, only earning a glare from the spirit.

“We spirits have an _agreement_ you – oh he _llo_ there you are.” The spirit sighs out in relief and walks right past him.

It’s annoying, but he turns around. A man with brilliant red hair is standing there. He…doesn’t know who the man is, but he feels like he should. Hell, he realizes, he can’t even remember his _own_ name.

Somehow he thinks if he could just see the man’s face, it would all come back to him. Haru’s body moves, as if it’s being controlled by someone else. Before he realizes what he’s doing, he has the man’s shoulder in his grip and is spinning him around. The man stumbles as he spins, and he drops his hand as if burned.

The man has no face.

He finds himself stumbling backwards, tripping over his own feet and splashing into the swamp. He’s not even sure why he’s so upset other than _holy shit that guy has no face I’m gonna vomit I –_

“Well well well…what do we have here?” A gravelly voice echoes around the swamp. He looks up in time to see a spirit with the body of a centipede crawl out of the tree. Off to the side, the spirit he came with freezes. “Rei, long time no see,” the new spirit oozes honey from his voice. “I see you’ve come to me with a new face.”

“That’s none of your concern,” Rei tells him, completely expressionless.

 Now that the initial shock is over, this whole situation has changed from terrifying to vaguely interesting. Well, somewhat interesting. Not interesting enough to hold his attention, though. He splashes his hands into the swamp, trying to pull himself away from the suction.

Unfortunately, it draws Koh’s attention. “You brought me another human,” he practically purrs, slipping his way towards him, “you know how much I like them.” He manages to stand as the spirit arrives, wiping some of the mud off his pants. As if it matters.

“La…” Koh exhales. He blinks and the face _shifts_ changing into something else he doesn’t recognize; the female Noh mask changes into a male one, old and wrinkled with a white moustache coming past the chin. Somehow, this doesn’t surprise him. Doesn’t do anything to him at all. “You took part of the ocean spirit from the physical world. My, my, but I am impressed with you, Rei.”

“The…ocean spirit?”

Koh whips back around so fast he has to duck to not get hit in the face by the spirit’s body. When he comes back up, both spirits are facing each other, blinking emotionlessly.

The larger one smirks before blinking again, changing his face. This time Haru’s the one who gasps. He _knows_ this face, he recognizes it, he…

He knows his own name again.

“Stop!” A new voice joins the fray, but Haru doesn’t have it in him to look away from the face Koh is wearing now. He _knows_ who it really belongs to but…it’s like there’s something forcibly preventing him from thinking of the name.

“Well isn’t today just _filled_ with surprises.” Koh slinks into the swamp, not sounding at all surprised. Haru’s eyes follow him, spotting another set of familiar faces; a blonde spirit and another human. These ones don’t give him the same tip of the tongue feeling the one on Koh’s face does, though. Less interesting. “Unless these eyes deceive me, you’ve brought the _Avatar_ along for the ride.”

“Nagisa!” Rei seems affronted by the situation, but his show of emotion isn’t enough to draw Koh’s attention back. The spirit is focused on the familiar man in blue, someone Haru knows he should recognize but just can’t quite.

“And what is your name this time, Avatar? Do remind me; it’s been so long since I knew what face you wore.”

The Avatar shifts weight, looking like he’d rather be anywhere but here. “Kuruk,” he gives in eventually, face still schooled into the same neutral expression the other two spirits are wearing. Rin would’ve laughed had he been here to witness this.

_Rin_.

The name hits him again with such force he nearly ends up back down in the swamp. Instead, Haru spins around and sees the faceless man still standing there, half turned. Frozen in place, as if afraid to move without being able to see. He looks again at Koh. Then back at the faceless man.

The face the spirit has belongs to _Rin_.

Koh reaches his arms out innocently. “The innocent one here is me, Avatar. I was simply sitting alone in my home when this one barged in. Everyone knows the rules: if you enter my home, your face is as good as mine.”

“You shouldn’t have stolen his face,” the Avatar growls, sounding more serious this time.

Koh laughs. “Avatar, do you not know who I am? Do you not know what I do?”

Haru startles when a hand reaches out to grab his wrist. He turns, wanting to cry at the sight of faceless Rin. Rin can’t express himself, but Haru can feel the concern and fear in him all the same. He turns his palm over, grasping his boyfriend’s hand with a gentle squeeze.

“Give Rin back his face.” Haru’s own voice startles even himself, but he can’t bring himself to regret it. He turns, leveling his gaze with Koh again.

The spirit, still wearing Rin’s face, smirks and slithers his way over to him. Another blink, another new face. This time a blue demon. “ **And what are you going to do if I say no**?” He booms, mere inches from Haru’s face.

The waterbender thinks a moment. “Then I would give you mine in exchange.”

Shock passes over the mask before it blinks back to the first face. “A portion of La, forever in my spirit. A tempting offer, I must say.”

Haru can’t lie; he has no idea what Koh is talking about. But that’s been pretty much how he’s been feeling this entire time. “So?”

Haru feels a gust, a rush of wind, and before Koh can respond, the Avatar is standing between them, eyes glowing. “ **You know the rules, Koh.** ” The voice coming from the Avatar’s mouth doesn’t sound anything like it had before, filled instead with the sound of a hundred voices joined together.

“Certainly I do,” the spirit circles its tail around both Haru and the Avatar, holding them close. “The question is, do you?”

“ **The faces of the ancients are not yours to take**.”

“Ah, yes. But that rule does not apply to a face given willingly.” Koh’s tail tightens around them both, pressing Haru’s side against Kuruk. The Avatar is warm, uncomfortably so, as if his entire soul had been lit on fire. It would explain why his eyes are glowing. “You are not a good negotiator, Avatar Kuruk. If you want to entice me to return the human’s face, you need to offer me something in return.” The spirit looks directly at Haru again. “Like La is.”

Maybe it’s the blood being slowly cut off from his brain, or maybe it’s the sight of the still lost Rin standing faceless below, but the passive detachedness from before is gone. He’s terrified. He doesn’t want to lose his face, even though he’d give it in a heartbeat if there were really no other way. But he also knows it’ll hurt Rin. That he’ll end up in the same position, begging and pleading with Koh to return Haru’s face, but he won’t have anything to offer. And Koh will just take Rin’s too, leaving them both faceless and lost in the spirit world while their bodies rot away back at home.

He wants to help.

Haru’s hands are trapped between them, so when he _reaches_ out it’s a part of his spirit that moves. He feels it brush against the scalding heat that is the Avatar and a thousand eyes turn to him.

_Bring him back_ , he begs, even though his mouth can’t move. _Bring him back and I promise I’ll return the favor someday_.

He pushes his spirit the rest of the way, making contact with the oldest set of eyes. _Let go_ , a voice tells him in his mind, _and we’ll take care of the rest_.

Haru releases his grasp completely, opening his eyes with a gasp. The world is too bright and too dark at the same time, the contrast of it making his head spin. Next to him, the Avatar is on fire, glowing hotter than before.

He sees Koh’s eyes widen in surprise, the spirit’s face swimming in front of him. He tilts his head limply, looking back over at Rin, still immobile by the swamp. Spots dance in front of his eyes, and the red of Rin’s hair is the last thing he sees before the world goes black.

 

 

 

Makoto can’t stop pacing. First Haru had gone missing, disappeared completely off the face of the earth for all he knew, and now Rin’s gone too. He’d gotten worried when Rin hadn’t come back in time for dinner, even though he’s always known the firebender is stubborn. Figuring Rin had refused to come back without news on Haru, he’d gone out looking for him.

But he couldn’t find him.

So now Makoto’s lost two friends, and even though everyone in the North Pole is so kind and willing to help…no one knows where they are. Or even where to _look_.

He can’t sleep, he can’t sit still, he can barely eat. Instead Makoto just paces. He can’t do this; he can’t live with himself knowing _something_ took away his two best friends, he really can’t.

And just when Makoto feels ready to give up completely, he sees it. A bright light shining upwards at the sky, originating from the spirit oasis.

_Of course_. He should’ve checked the spirit oasis at the beginning.

Makoto’s out the house and running before he can think twice. He only has one arm through the sleeve of his jacket, but that hardly matters. He races down the walkways, taking corners so fast he almost flings himself into the water, but he gets there.

Without pausing for a breath, Makoto pushes open the door to the oasis just as the light goes out. What he sees there is…confusing.

Three glowing people are standing around the pool, while two not-glowing people lie still on the ground. Makoto’s brain finally catches up with his feet and he darts forward again.

“Haru! Rin!” He skids to a stop, dropping to his knees between them. They’re unmistakably his friends, but their eyes are closed and they’re not responding to his shouts. He looks up at the glowing spirits as if they hold all the answers. “Why aren’t they responding?” He shouts.

The one on the left leans next to him, resting his hand on Makoto’s shoulder. “They’re sleeping. They’ve been through a bit, so we decided to let them rest a bit.” His voice is familiar too, and Makoto recognizes him finally from their childhood.

“Avatar Kuruk?”

“The one and only,” the Avatar grins.

Makoto would think he were dreaming, except that he can’t sleep. “I thought you were in the South Pole,” he says, for lack of anything better.

“Well, technically I am. My body is. This is just my spirit.”

Spirits. That sounds familiar enough, except… “Why can I see you then?”

“It’s likely you have a high affinity for spiritual energy. Some humans do. Usually they’re airbenders, but not necessarily always.” The spirit to the right speaks this time, adjusting his spirit glasses as he speaks.

Makoto nods, not understanding at all. He looks back down at his friends and the problem at hand. “When will they wake up?”

“I’ll wake them up as soon as we leave,” the small one in the middle chirps this time. “That way you don’t have to carry them both home!”

“Oh…thanks.”

Kuruk pats him on the shoulder again. “You should get some rest too. Your friends are going to be just fine.” As he says the last words, his spirit shrinks, finally disappearing in a flash of light headed south.

The other two spirits nod at him. “No funny business, Nagisa. You heard the Avatar,” the glasses spirit chides. The smaller one responds with something Makoto can’t catch before they also disappear.

“Unh…” The groan comes from the ground, and Makoto startles to see Rin finally stirring. The spirits kept their words. “Makoto?” Rin asks, clearly confused.

Makoto rubs his own eyes. “Yeah. You’re back. So is Haru.”

At the sound of his boyfriend’s name, Rin jerks upright. “Haru?!” He exclaims. He moves so fast, Makoto almost gets dizzy. Rin doesn’t seem to care, though, and hovers over the waterbender instead as he finally stirs.

“Rin? You’re too loud.”

Makoto finally relaxes, exhaling. He’d missed the sound of Haru’s voice. Hearing it again is more of a relief than even seeing him.

“Shut up, like it matters. I was really worried you know!” Rin chides, voice gruff as he leans down, pressing his forehead to Haru’s.

Makoto turns away, giving them some well-deserved privacy.

“Worried about what?”

Rin chuckles a little. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Is that…an engagement necklace in your hand?”

Makoto whips his head around, but he can’t see anything except their bodies. Oh dear lord no…they need to get back to the privacy of their own homes for this. “Haru, Rin…I don’t really think this is the place…”

His complaint is drowned out by Rin’s awkward spluttering, no doubt his attempt at a proposal.

“It doesn’t look very good.”

“Haru!” He and Rin exclaim simultaneously. “It’s not as easy when you can’t waterbend,” Rin whines.

“I’m joking, Rin. I love it.”

Makoto buries his head in his knees. Clearly his friends aren’t planning to move anytime soon. He’s certainly not planning to leave them alone anytime soon, either. Resigning himself to his fate, he lays down in the grass. “Don’t have sex in the oasis, ok? I’m right here.” He doesn’t hear an acknowledgement from them, but that’s ok. At least it’s warm here.    

**Author's Note:**

> Did you catch it all? If not, here are a few (I want to leave a few easter eggs open to be found):
> 
> 1) [Koh stole Avatar Kuruk's fiancé's face because he thought the Avatar was too arrogant](http://avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Koh) (this is the prequel for that)  
> 2) La/Haru tell the Avatar that they'll repay them someday, and they do in the Siege of the North  
> 3) Haru finds the name "Koh" familiar because of "Kou"


End file.
